e a monk, and
died like a saint, "and no one since, in the English race, has ever been
able to compose pious poems equal to his, for he was inspired by God,
and had learnt nothing of men." Some tried, however.

An incomplete translation of the Bible in Anglo-Saxon verses has come
down to us, the work apparently of several authors of different
epochs.[88] Caedmon may be one of them: the question has been the cause
of immense discussion, and remains doubtful.

The tone is haughty and peremptory in the impassioned parts; abrupt
appositions keep the attention fixed upon the main quality of the
characters, the one by which they are meant to live in memory;
triumphant accents accompany the tales of war; the dismal landscapes are
described with care, or rather with loving delight. Ethereal personages
become in this popular Bible tangible realities. The fiend approaches
Paradise with the rude wiles of a peasant. Before starting he takes a
helmet, and fastens it tightly on his head. He presents himself to Adam
as coming from God: "The all-powerful above will not have trouble
himself, that on his journey he should come, the Lord of men, but he his
vassal sendeth."[89]

Hell, the deluge, the corruption of the grave, the last judgment, the
cataclysms of nature, are favourite subjects with these poets. Inward
sorrows, gnawing thoughts that "besiege" men, doubts, remorse, gloomy
landscapes, all afford them abundant inspiration. Satan in his hell has
fits of anguish and hatred, and the description of his tortures seems a
rude draft of Milton's awful picture.

Cynewulf,[90] one of the few poets of the Anglo-Saxon period known by
name, and the greatest of all, feels the pangs of despair; and then
rises to ecstasies, moved by religious love; he speaks of his return to
Christ with a passionate fervour, foreshadowing the great conversions of
the Puritan epoch. He ponders over his thoughts "in the narrowness of
night ... I was stained with my deeds, bound by my sins, buffeted with
sorrows, bitterly bound, with misery encompassed...." Then the cross
appears to him in the depths of heaven, surrounded by angels, sparkling
with jewels, flowing with blood. A sound breaks through the silence of
the firmament; life has been given to "the best of trees," and it
speaks: "It was long ago, yet I remember it, that I was cut down, at the
end of a wood, stirred from my sleep." The cross is carried on the top
of a mountain: "Then the young hero made r